Let's Get a New Weapon
"They say the Goddess is a fickle creature. If something won't go her way, she forces the issue and drags the impossible straight into the world."
"Then what about me."
"Hero Tati must have been a fine horse she couldn't do without. And it wasn't just talk—people said you were the best of every Hero who'd come before, didn't they? Then you handed the Holy Sword off and died for it. She may well have meddled because of that."
"Then she should've just gotten rid of the Demon King. Give me a break."
If she could stick her hand into human affairs that freely, she might as well have killed the Demon King and ended the Night.
Karif was only guessing, but the shape of it wasn't impossible. I was someone she needed. To keep me alive, she might have shoved me into this useless present-day Tatiana in my own place.
"Which might be why you can be Tati, and still have Tatiana hold together as a person."
"You know an awful lot for someone who doesn't look the part."
"I've got twice your years on me, you little brat! And I know more than you, too!"
Did he have to rupture my eardrums? And from right up against my face? Looking at him, I couldn't even tell what had set him off so badly—he'd gone and flung his hammer.
"Last I saw you was ages ago, and you show up dead, turned into the exact breed of worthless noble I hate most?"
"From now on, leave Tatiana of House von Clyde off that list. The house itself, while you're at it."
"Taking their side now that you're their young lady, are you?"
As if.
"No. I've lived it. House von Clyde wears a noble's mask and nothing else. They're practically commoners. And the moment I woke, demonic beasts were already invading, so I'd say that's about their level."
"Hmph. You little—no. If a girl like you is the one saying it, I'll take it under advisement. Once. Right. And I doubt you came all this way just to brag at me that you've turned into a woman."
"Truth is, this is the weapon I'm using."
I drew the sword at my hip and held it out to Karif. A blade of House Clyde—more precisely, the one Tatiana's mother had carried. He took it and turned it over, this way and that.
"This is the famed sword, Viola."
"You know it?"
"I made it. Well, it's a perfect fit for you as you are now. Forged with the Holy Sword as the model, so it ought to sit about one grade below."
He was busy convincing himself it suited the current me just fine. I wondered what he'd make of it, in the middle of all this mess, if he learned I was using holy power on top of everything else.
"Holy power came down with me, too. Use holy sword arts through this blade and the whole thing blows."
"What?"
I showed him in the yard behind the forge. Boom. Ka-BOOM. The dwarf's face twisted into something truly grim, and then, as if he'd finally understood, he gave a slow nod.
"Explosive Sword hits the hardest, but the rest of the sword arts detonate too."
"Nothing beats holy power for killing monsters, so you can't exactly leave it out."
"Right. Which is why I need something that can gather this holy power and launch it."
Something that could pack it tight and fire it, in other words.
"In other words, you want me to make you a bow."
"No. Bows aren't my style. Watching those damned elves shoot put me off them. Not a bow—but is there some other ranged weapon?"
"Then skip straight to holy magic and become a mage."
"I hate magic, too."
Karif had been holding up a scrap of iron, checking the quench. At that, his face said what the hell are you on about, and he stared straight at me.
"Not a staff. Not a bow. You need something that can fling holy power. That what you're saying?"
"That's right."
At a complete loss, the dwarf glared at me. The look of a cook watching a customer order something that wasn't on the menu was, in its way, entertaining.
"You're expecting too much of me, aren't you? A thing like that—I couldn't make it no matter how fine the mater—"
"So there is one."
He'd gone quiet mid-sentence. That meant something existed. Karif heaved a long sigh and started rummaging behind him. Not the reaction of a man about to forge anything. The reaction of a man who already had it.
"You already made it?"
"Wasn't me who made it. Right. Found it. A headache that's all looks, but it'll suit you."
After a long search he hauled out a box, wrapped with surprising care. He undid the lock and opened it for me to see.
"What is this?"
A strangely shaped weapon. Ah—I was fairly sure I'd seen one. Often enough, in noble houses.
"A weapon the Fire God left behind. A gun, made for exactly the sort you described—someone who can't properly use what they've got, on account of holy power."
"A gun. A gun. A miniaturized version of those mana cannons?"
A mana cannon was a weapon that gathered mana and hurled it. What I wanted was to fire off the holy power overflowing in me. Could the thing be used that way?
"Completely different from those. There was a mass-produced version of this, once. That one needed rounds made one by one and loaded by hand."
"Ah, I've seen those. Some noble was carrying one. They said it was less efficient than just slinging magic, didn't they?"
The weapons the Fire God forged in wartime were said to have been revolutionary. Nobles and the armies of every nation rated them highly, but the war left no one any room to breathe, and most countries poured their coin into whatever fire was burning that day. Regrettably, the Fire God's weapons were never mass-produced.
"More than anything, you couldn't overhaul a whole arsenal mid-war for the sake of one weapon. A shame."
"Couldn't be helped. Luck wasn't with them."
"This one, though, doesn't need rounds made separately. What goes in it is your holy power."
Holy power would make it simple. Exactly the weapon I wanted.
"How do you use it?"
"I don't really know. But according to the records the Fire God left, if you pour power in the way you would with the Holy Sword, rounds fill themselves into that—whatever you call it—that round hole. Several of them, I'm told."
"I've never used a weapon like this."
"For starters, among firearms, this one's called a revolver."
I decided to do as I was told. I fed holy power slowly into the cylinder, and orbs of light packed the chambers.
"Hoh. So that's how."
I lifted the loaded gun. It was light, as if it had already become part of me. Could the things nobles kept as ornaments—or as hunting pieces—really be used like this?
I set my feet and fired hard, out into the open. Bang! So this was what it felt like to shoot holy power. The shot flew, buried itself in the mountain, and detonated. KRA-KOOM. Maybe because it was a knot of light, the blast was even more spectacular.
"You insane little—do you ever think?"
"If it's a weapon I've never seen, of course I test it first."
I'd thrown myself at the front without a look back, all to kill the Demon King, but I was not some thoughtless, ignorant lout. If anything, being chosen as the Hero meant I had to be educated to match, and I'd sat through royal instruction right alongside Carn.
"So. Think it's usable?"
"Doesn't even have the recoil you get with a mortar."
"Well, the Fire God made it."
The Fire God. Karif's ancestor, no question. Of course a weapon like this would be lying around.
"So how did he end up with the name Fire God?"
"He made all kinds of weapons. Doesn't mean much now."
Karif muttered it with a bitter look.
"So enshrining him cleanly among the Seven Gods was a delicate business, and they took to calling him the Fire God as well."
Even those Seven Gods had only driven back the Night. They never caught the Demon King. Not one of them had become the Hero.
The Holy Sword existed for a single purpose: to cut the Demon King down. The Seven, who never held it, couldn't even approach his castle. All they managed was to push back the Night—the Abyss—as far as it would go.
Praising the likes of them as gods felt questionable. Regrettably, though, even the Heroes of every age had failed to slay the Demon King. In this dark age, all they had done was shove the Night back a little and hold humanity's ground. So the title of humanity's gods, given to those seven who never took up the Holy Sword, was no exaggeration.
Which made me wonder. Without the Holy Sword, was the most I could do no better than the Seven Gods? Or, since I still had the Hero's holy power, could I reach the Demon King's castle after all?
"That's about the size of it. Well? Usable?"
Usable. Enormously so. At this rate, it felt outright better than the Holy Sword I used to carry.
"Usable, sure. Can you repair it?"
"Who do you take me for? I can. So long as you don't wreck it past all saving."
Bang! With each shot I eased off and brought the damage down. Slowly. Slowly. I didn't cram the holy power in like a brute. I fed it in by degrees.
"Hey—what do you think you're doing? This isn't your front yard."
"Not like I can practice this at Felione."
Try it at Felione and there'd be an uproar. I didn't know the place well, but it was full of nobles and commoners clawing their way up. Being the young lady of von Clyde didn't mean I could run wild.
"Well. You get the hang of it fast enough that I can't help thinking you're still you."
"Hmm. Holy power gets classed as mana too, doesn't it? So could I load some other attribute and fire that?"
Holy power could be filed as sacred mana—light-attribute mana. The attribute changed with the mana a person carried.
"I'd imagine so."
"I'll have to try that on my own, then. What's the price?"
"There hasn't been anyone fit to use the thing, till now. Hmm. No. Forget it. Taking money from you would just feel wrong."
Karif shook his head and refused. I'd repay him later, once I got my hands on some decent materials. All in all, an interesting weapon.
"So what are you going to do now?"
"About what?"
"The Demon King. You handed off the Holy Sword, so the best you can manage is the level of the Seven Gods. And if you're alone... hmph. Not as if you'd join forces with Carn."
Absolutely not. I'd sooner go it alone than sit through another one of Carn's orgies. Granted, without the Holy Sword, I had no idea whether I could even reach the Demon King's castle.
"It'll work out somehow."
"The goal's still the Demon King?"
For a while, I meant to enjoy playing the young lady. In the end, though, it would probably come to that anyway. A weapon like this, power like this—they existed so I would kill the Demon King.
"Obviously. I'll line this revolver you gave me up with the Demon King's skull."
"And you can get there? You don't even have the Holy Sword."
The Holy Sword. Better to have it. Not having it wouldn't stop me. They said it guided the way to the Demon King's castle, but if a path existed, the sword was only tracking a location. I'd find it somehow and put one of these holy rounds through the Demon King's head.
"It'll work out somehow."
"I'm just saying, that line of yours has always struck me as strange."
"What has?"
"Never mind. If you're done, get out. Watching you act like Tati while looking like that genuinely unsettles me."
Unlike Tati, I was a woman now. Did that make it a little different? A polished, well-kept noble young lady had to be an improvement on some gloomy man. The one real difference was that I wasn't wearing a frumpy dress, or a uniform with a long skirt dragging behind it.
"Why? Do I look better?"
"An expressionless woman is not pleasant to look at. You ought to go through life with an emotion or two attached."
Well. If he was telling me to leave, I'd leave. What else was there to do?